


never without (whatever you happen to be)

by ChevreJaune



Series: the rose potter files [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Character Study, Female Harry Potter, Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts First Year, Letters, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 23:04:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10863948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChevreJaune/pseuds/ChevreJaune
Summary: Ronald Weasley meets Rose Potter on the first of September of the year 1991. It's quite incidental, a fluke of fate, except no friendship is an accident, is it?





	never without (whatever you happen to be)

 

 

 

[train ride]

Ronald Weasley meets Rose Potter on the first of September of the year 1991.

He’s been told by Ginny many times over that the Girl-who-Lived would be in his year, so he isn’t too surprised when she introduces herself. It is a bit of a shock, though, to realize that the girl hero Ginny worships since she toddles isn’t taller than his baby sister, and acts much shyer. But Rose Potter also bears an honest grin, however tentative it is, and it relaxes him. She keeps asking him questions: about him, about wizards and witches and potions and brooms. He swears she’s hanging on the edge of her seat. Being listened to so attentively is a foreign feeling. It feels like he’s important. It feels good.

He decides they’re going to be fast friends. He’s never had a friend that was all his first – Scabbers was Percy’s, and he’s had to share all of his siblings and family. Speaking of which, he’ll have to keep Rose safe from the twins. She looks like she’d be a stand-up friend, so he’d make sure he’d be a good friend in return.

A quarter of an hour later, their cabin is filled with candies and chocolate and Ron has to amend his earlier thought. Rose Potter looks like she’d be a _great_ friend, the best of the best.

If the way she grins like she feels lucky to have met _him_ isn’t enough – and it is more than sufficient–, the encounter with Malfoy and his goons hammers it home for good.

Their friendship will be glorious, the stuff of legend, and Ginny is going to be _so goddamn jealous_.

 

 

&

 

 

_Ronald Weasley!_

_Fred and George wrote to me about your new friend, fancy that – and what a surprise. I have half a mind to send you a nasty curse with this letter! YES, brother dear. How would you feel if I met the captain of the Chudley Cannons in person and didn’t mention it? Betrayal of a higher order hasn’t been committed in this household, and we live to have Percival Weasley the simpering snitch as a brother! Mull that over, would you, you useless prat._

_I have just one request (for now). It’s IMPERATIVE that you stick by it –I WILL know if you don’t, so you HAVE to promise and MEAN it. Here it is: whatever you do, DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH HER. We both know you would only mess it up, and then she won’t ever want to have anything to do with any Weasleys! Don’t ruin it for the rest of us!_

_Mum passes her love etc._

_Your darling sister,_

_Ginny_

 

 

&

 

 

[duelling matters]

‘We’re going to kick his stupid arse, Rose! It’ll be brilliant.’

‘I want to, I swear, but I don’t know any good spells, Ron!’

Ron shrugs. Rose worries too much: Malfoy hardly looks like he’d be good with his wand. He sniggers at the thought. ‘I’m sure you’ll be a natural, like with the flying thing.’

‘How could I be a natural at spells? I’d have to know them, and I _don’t_ , that’s what I’ve been telling you.’

‘Yeah, but,’ Ron starts, scratching his chin, ‘your dad was an Auror, a mighty good one too if Dad’s right. So you’d have those reflex things. We’ll just have to look at the end of the textbook for a few hexes and curses. We have _hours_ till midnight!’

He knows he has her there – he’s seen the way she moves. At first, he just thought she was skittish. The first time a Slytherin threw a dead frog at her and she batted it away with her spoon in one smooth movement, he realized she didn’t just startle easy: she had the knee-jerk responses to go with it.

‘I can dodge well enough,’ she concedes after a while. Her eyes look distant.

It isn’t a look Ron likes much. Something about it makes him feel – chilly.

He injects some added cheer in his answer: ‘Of course you could!’

She is silent again. Then, ‘What’s an Auror?’

Well – well, damn. Sometimes, she agrees so quickly to the Wizarding games he proposes that he forgets she’s never even heard of them before. He forgets she’s been raised away from all the magic. It still takes him by surprise. ‘Er, Aurors are… they catch the dark wizards, make sure we’re safe and all. They’re part of the DMLE – the magical law enforcement.’

‘Policemen, then,’ Rose says, nodding. ‘My dad was a magical policeman.’

Her smile is on the bitter side of sad, but her eyes are bright, cleared up and _there_.

‘So, we go and practice?’

‘Yeah, my brothers will know some good stuff.’ He kind of wishes his parents had told him more stories about the Potters: it looks like Rose would like to hear them. She’d probably enjoy them more than the stories of his youth at the Burrow. Then again, she’s the one who asks about that. ‘Anyway, don’t worry about that blond prat. You’ll show him. Blimey, you killed You-Know-Who when you were in diapers, Rose.’

Rose grins back, _finally_. ‘I suppose I did.’

 

 

&

 

 

[that other Gryffindor boy in the dorms]

‘I can’t stand that guy!’ Ron laments, jerking his chin towards his curly haired dorm mate, Fay Lucas Dunbar.

Rose glances up from her homework with a frown. ‘I thought you said he was awesome?’

Ron grimaces because, yeah, he remembers saying that. The guy had been friendly in a familiar sort of way, and he knew his Quidditch facts good and proper. Plus, he was a Gryffindor, so he was bound to be a decent bloke. Now, though, Ron knows better.

‘He said Scabbers would spread diseases everywhere. Insisted I get rid of him, the complete git.’

‘Maybe he doesn’t like rats,’ Rose suggests, looking apologetic as she does so. ‘Or he’s scared of them, like you with spiders.’

‘It’s not… m’not scared of the creepy buggers. They’re just...’ Ron changes the subject before Rose can give him a look and a pat. ‘Also, he said the Chudley Cannons were bottom of the barrel!’

Thankfully, even if Rose is learning lots about Quidditch, she doesn’t know enough to reply that Fay Lucas might be right on that, and that it’ll be a miracle if the Cannons win more than the occasional lucky match. He likes that about Rose. He lets her give him the hand pat this time.

‘There, there,’ she soothes, ‘the girls in my dorm have staged a fashion intervention for me.’

Ron wrinkles his nose. He knows: they approached him for that one.

He obviously refused to participate: he’s still not sure why they thought it was a good idea to ask him. Rose’s clothes are a tad peculiar, sure, but they’re Muggle, so of course they’d be. The clothes his dad puts on when he goes into Muggle London aren’t that different besides.

Girls could be such a pain – he has no idea how Rose escaped from the craziness of her gender, but he’s sure it’s related to the way she resisted the Killing Curse as a baby.

‘You should have been a boy,’ Ron says. ‘Then I wouldn’t have to deal with rat-hating people and you wouldn’t have obsessed witches wanting to burn your clothes.’

Rose titters but shakes her head. ‘Nah, mate. I’m good. You probably snore.’

 

 

&

 

 

_Hey Gin,_

_Something happened. I need to ask a favour – it’ll make us even for that time you trapped me with the ghoul, yeah? That’s how important this is!_

_I need you to destroy any letter that comes from Hogwarts this week (and maybe the next to be safe) before mum can see them. Distract her if you need to. Don’t let her see this one either!_

_Ron_

_PS: This is Hedwig. She’s Rose’s owl – she should be faster than any owl Percy or the twins could get. Be nice to her and give her something meaty and she’ll love you._

 

 

&

 

 

[troll in the bathroom!]

On the train to Hogwarts, just as fast as he knew he’d be friends with Rose Potter, Ron knew he wouldn’t be able to stand Hermione Granger. He remembers his embarrassment as she made fun of the fake spell the twins had convinced him was real.

Both those insights – the one about Rose, and then the one about Granger – were quick and decisive. He’s had no reason to change his mind since: Rose keeps being good fun and nice to him, while Hermione keeps pointing out the many ways in which he isn’t good enough, and nitpicks constantly at his schoolwork and eating habits.

Plus, the girl keeps nodding at everything Percy says and tediously defends Snape’s awful teaching. If that's not a sign that she's at least a bit touched in the head, he doesn't know what is.

 

 

&

 

 

Admittedly, he feels mighty bad when Hermione hears him say out loud what he’s been thinking about her since the start of the semester. She is annoying, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

Hours later, he adds to that: she’s annoying, but he doesn’t want her to get eaten by a troll. That’s an awful way to die. Rose agrees with him on that.

In fact, the know-it-all is annoying, but he will fight to help her out. No way around that, not when he’s a Gryffindor and it is kind of his fault that the girls had been in the bathroom. Like with the three headed dog, they run away together, all three of them, or they don’t run away at all.

Hermione looks wobbly on her legs, and there is no way for her to get pass the troll without the stinky beast noticing, no matter how dumb it looks. They’ll have to fight it.

So he squeezes his wand tighter and almost snorts when Rose shoves her own into the troll’s nose. It turns into a squeak when the troll grabs Rose.

‘Do something!’ Rose squeaks back. ‘Ron, do something!’

He can only stare because he has a sudden flashback of her saying ‘I don’t know many spells’ that evening before the duel with Malfoy – the duel the prat never showed up for – and together they had mastered the tripping spell and Rose had gotten a good workout with the tickling spell, but none of them would work to their advantage now and the troll doesn’t stop swinging at Rose and Ron can’t _think_ and oh Merlin he is going to be sick –

‘Swish and flick!’ instructs Hermione from her position under the sink.

Ron has never been grateful for her no-nonsense lecturing tone before, but he figures now is a good time to start.

Wingardium Leviosa works like a charm – hah. They’ll have to remember that for the next time Malfoy wants to get his arse kicked.

 

 

&

 

 

[post-quidditch]

As they head towards Hagrid’s hut, Ron can’t get a grip on his bubbling excitement.

Rose had caught the Snitch with her MOUTH.

She’d caught the Snitch and won Gryffondor the game before taking a strategic tumble down her Nimbus 2000!

She’d done that after their evil potion master tried to shake her off her broom – she’d done that on her first match!

And Hermione! Hermione had not hesitated before lighting up their professor’s robes on fire.

Hermione! Fire!

Hermione, who nagged his ears off about the importance of school and homework and rules every time he yawned when he ‘should be working on his essay that won’t write itself’. _That_ Hermione.

Fred and George could tease him about having no close male friends all they wanted – being friends with these girls is _awesome_.

 

 

&

 

 

_Hey mum,_

_No problem, I don’t mind staying at Hogwarts over the holidays. Rose is gonna stay, too. Those Muggles of hers don’t seem to like her much. They haven’t written her one line since she’s been here, and I don’t reckon she expected more of them._

_Say hi to Charlie for me, yeah?_

_Love,_

_Ron_

 

 

&

 

 

[snow days]

December passes by quicker than Ron expects.

Between researching Flamel and having snowball fights with Rose and the twins, his schedule is fully booked.

Normally, Ron would be wary about exposing himself to the twins’ tender mercies so often. However, after seeing Rose make branches full of snow fall onto their stupid heads, Ron decided he never wanted to miss some brilliant moment like this, ever.

The twins had been impressed too. None of them had missed Rose’s relief when they had congratulated her instead of… whatever she expected. In the ensuing frenzy, Rose had guffawed and vowed loudly, solemnly, to conquer ‘this winter wonderland’ in the good name of Jack Frost.

She had sounded young.

‘She looks a picture,’ a voice pipes up next to him.

He turns to see Dean Thomas watching Rose. Rose, who is trailing after Hagrid, Hagrid and the giant trees he carries four at a time. Ron spots one of Rose’s mittens lost in their wake. Lavender would fuss about it: she had given that pair to Rose.

But, yeah. Dwarfed by the groundskeeper and the pine trees, Rose sort of looks like one of those yuletides illustrations. Apparently, he voices that out loud, because Dean responds, ‘More like, with that tattered coat, she looks like that little match girl, you know?’

Ron says no, he doesn’t know. When Dean tells him the story, he wishes he hadn’t asked.

The tale turns out to be bloody depressing: the main character cracks matches she can’t sell one for a spot of warmth as she yearns for something more – for something else. And still she freezes to death, alone and forgotten.

It is a shite Christmas story. Now he remembers Rose’s shivers after their last snow ball medley and, because of stupid Dean Thomas, he can picture her lips turn blue and her limbs shake as she runs out of matches and dies.

The image follows him back to the Common Room well into the evening. Only a repeated mantra of _incendio, who needs matches when we have incendio_ , allows his hand to not repeatedly dart to Rose’s forehead to keep track of her temperature.

After a few minutes of this mental slogan, the parchment he’s been writing on catches fire.

He marvels at the ashes, at his show of wandless magic.

It’s a damn shame Snape won’t believe him when he explains why he can’t hand in his homework.

 

 

&

 

 

_Hey mum, dad,_

_Rose loves the gift you sent – good call on the green. Much better than maroon! I don’t think she really got many gifts before. The look on her face was grand._

_Thanks for mine, too. Fudge was great._

_I’ve put a message from Rose with my letter. Don’t think badly of her if she says something strange, it’s because her Muggles made her believe strange things,_

_Love,_

_Ron_

 

 

&

 

 

[happy holidays]

Christmas at Hogwarts ends up being very similar to Christmas at home – fire dances in the chimney and he gets to toast food in it with Rose; there’s gifts and feasts and the loudness of his brothers. Ron’s also taken up the task of teaching Rose how to play Wizards chess. She’s pants at it but, whatever, it’s something to do.

It’s also very different. Mum isn’t there to top his plate every time he gets a spoonful gobbled up, though he’s gotten used to that over the course of the semester. Ginny isn’t reciting short stories she’s written about Muggle myths and creatures, but he hopes for Dad that she does that this year too, even in Romania. Also, Ron can sleep in every morning.

Holidays at Hogwarts are good.

There are no slimy Slytherins. There is no Aunt Muriel sending them useless but expensive gifts with dismissive letters that make the Weasleys feel like a charity case. In fact, with Rose around, Ron feels like he’s the one handing out charity – she is just so surprised and so bloody grateful at every little gift, like they’ve given her the world or something. She’s gotten a priceless invisibility cloak, perfect for sneaking out of the dorms, and she still looks more awed about the lumpy sweater his mother sent her.

When the Hogwarts Express returns at the start of the new term, Ron is sad to see Christmas time end.

 

 

&

 

 

_To a young ginger boy,_

_Happy birthday! I’ve got you something from my last expedition. It’s not much, and I know you hate getting used things from us, but hey. It’s one of those things where age makes it cool. Make good use of it, little brother. From what I’ve heard from the twins, you’ve landed yourself in some amount of trouble with a troll – don’t be thinking I’m encouraging you to get into any shenanigans. Mum wouldn’t forgive me if she found out I had that sort of bad influence._

_Anyway, hope your twelfth year treats you well,_

_All my best,_

_Bill_

 

 

&

 

 

[the march revision madness]

Hermione prattling on about her study system is, sadly, a reality Ron has gotten used to.

He sort of wishes he could have gotten used to it in April or in May, rather than in March when the finals were still so far away.

 ‘ – so naturally since you’ve researched so much about the properties of mundane flora I thought you and I could delve deeper into the topic and make it into a research subject in Potions – ‘

Rose had been minding her own business, quietly reading up on wood fairies and cave demons when Hermione had pounced. Ron sympathises with her.

‘ With Neville on board I think we’d get a real chance to double the length of our essays,‘ and the crazy girl says it like it’s something to strive for. ‘If we manage our time right, we can work out a more profound intersectional understanding of those subjects and it’ll help prepare us for the complex thinking required for the end of year exams – ‘

‘Hermione,’ Rose interrupts, her eyes as wide as saucers, and panicked as a jumpy rabbit, ‘this sounds like preparation for a master thesis, not for first year exams.’

‘Oh, Rose,’ Hermione sighs with a pitying glance, ‘how can you hope to do well when you take this kind of attitude?’

‘But, Hermione, what about…’ Ron mouths the word ‘stone’ cautiously.

Hermione gives him a puzzled frown, which only deepens when Ron repeats his quiet enunciation. She then chooses to ignore him.

‘What do you think, Rose?’ Her eyes, they shine with anticipation. ‘With this, we would have something to work on until the end of the term. You’re the one who said I shouldn’t put all my focus into revision.’

‘I… Quidditch practices,’ Rose chokes out.

Hermione just raises her eyebrows.

Rose turns to Ron, bearing the same distressed expression as when the troll had caught her by the ankle and dangled her merrily. Ron dubs it her ‘DO SOMETHING!’ look. It is a lot less subtle than her ‘help me’ glances.

Sadly for her, he has nothing to get her away this time. He could presumably push her bag closer to her, but the chances that she could pull out her invisibility cloak and disappear without Hermione or another Gryffindor noticing are… honestly, they are inexistent.

Sure, he’d face hungry trolls and monstrous dogs with her and for her – they’re friends after all – , but against Hermione’s eagerness to learn and the girl’s absolute inability to take a hint? He isn’t about to offer himself up as distraction.

‘You’re on your own,’ he mouths. He only muffles his laughter so he won’t attract Hermione’s attention.

Rose, much more adept at reading his ridiculous gesticulations, glares at him.

He flashes her a grin and two thumbs up.

 

 

&

 

 

[april’s fools eve]

 ‘So, tomorrow is April first,’ Ron states in a rushed whisper, watching out from the corner of his eyes for the twins sneaking presences. For now, they were in the clear. ‘I need you. Well, your cloak, but you too.’

‘Isn’t that cheating?’ 

_In for a penny…,_ Ron decides. ‘I want to prank the twins.’

Rose whistles. Or at least she tries to. It’s more of a splutter, really. ‘Tall order, that.’

Ron spins around proper and faces her. ‘You have to help! They’ve had these grand pranks, ever since I was little, see – and I’ve thought of something good enough to get back at them.’

‘Easy, Ron,’ Rose cuts in. ‘Of course I’ll help. That’s what friends do, yeah? They take on the unthinkable, go against the odds, sacrifice sanity on the altar of all-encompassing madness. What’ve you got?’

Ron grins. Not for the first time, he thinks, _Rose is wasted as a girl_.

‘Okay, see, it’s their birthday tomorrow, so…’

 

 

&

 

 

_Hullo Charlie,_

_Sorry I haven’t kept in touch this year, but you know how crazy Hogwarts can get. Speaking of, we told Hagrid we’d help him get rid of his illegal baby dragon. Could you and your friends come pick it up? That’d be great._

_The owl will wait for your reply if you’re nice to her. Name’s Hedwig._

_Best,_

_Ron_

_PS: Not a word to mum, yeah?_

 

 

&

 

 

[hospital wing- last days of term]

Ron visits Rose in the hospital wing every day after their misadventure underneath the trap door. Watching her sleep her injuries away is rather dull, but spying upon her visitors provides ample distractions. Being the spectator to the birth of ridiculous rumors and adventurous tales is a humbling experience.

‘You should see their faces, mate,’ Ron says after a while. Talking to Rose while she’s sleeping feels silly, but the continuous silence bothers him. Rose takes so much less space when she’s unconscious – he hates everything about it. ‘The teachers only told about Quirrell being possessed and dying. There’re all sorts of bets about what possessed him. Can’t be fashion sense, girls say. Can’t be competence either, can it? They all just come and stand and stare. I reckon they have a hard time believing a little girl with her hair still braided in pigtails fought off whatever big bad ghost possessed him.’

He snorts at that. Unconscious Rose echoes the thought as she twists and mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like ‘idiots’.

‘Yeah. They believed you could do it when you were a baby, didn’t they? Don’t ask me. You have to be a bloody disappointing student, is probably why they’re skeptical now.’

Rose hums in her sleep.

 

 

&

 

 

[before the feast]

Rose wakes up, which is good. She has gone mad, which is bad.

It has to be Dumbledore’s fault.

‘What about kissing injuries better then?’

_Kissing_? Ron pulls a face. ‘What d’you mean?’ _What’s wrong with you_ , he doesn’t say.

‘As in, to make them heal faster – could that work through magic?’

‘I don’t know what books the twins have been smuggling you,’ Ron starts haltingly, ‘but better not make that kind of suggestion around Madam Pomfrey.’

Rose flushes. ‘Not like _that_. It’s just – it’s a saying in the Muggle world, _kiss it better_. People do it.’

‘Why would anyone want to put their mouths on…’ At a loss for word, Ron makes a vague gesture. He means to wave at the hospital beds, at the general idea of gross boils and injuries. However, the only concrete thing his hand waves at is Rose herself.

Thankfully, his friend isn’t so sensitive about that stuff and Hermione isn’t there to make a fuss. Rose just coughs out a laugh. ‘Yeah. So, your mom never kissed your scraped knees and blew on it?’

‘Merlin, _no_. Are you just having me on? Muggles really sew up their wounds with strings and kiss them? Mental, the lot of them. Why’d you ask?’

Rose frowns. ‘Trying to figure out if the power of love… exists? In a tangible form.’

Ron mulls that over, swiping a box of candy from Rose’s generous bounty. Expensive sugar quills. He puts it back, sheepish, and trades it for a cheaper treat. ‘It might, at that. I’m not sure. I’ll ask my mum about it, yeah?’

Rose gives him a small smile. It hangs a tad lopsided. ‘That – sounds nice, Ron. You do that.’

 

 

&

 

 

_Hey mum and dad,_

_I’ve told Rose she was invited to spend part of the summer with us? Hope you guys don’t mind._

_I’ll watch out for you at the platform. Don’t let the twins or Percy tell you about the end of the year before I get a chance! That’s very important!_

_Also, tell Ginny she can’t just leave all the de-gnoming to us menfolk. It’s ~~unfemalistic~~ sexist._

_Love,_

_Ron_

 

&

 

 

[off the train]

He hugs Rose goodbye at the platform. It isn't something he thought he'd be doing - it's just, Hermione hugs Rose and then hugs him, and when she turns to hug Neville, Rose and Ron are left facing each other in silence. Hugging becomes the less awkward option.

Ron is somewhat used to being hugged, if often against his will. He can't recall a single hug he initiated himself, though. It's quite strange, but Rose hardly seems to mind how unelegant his attempt is, or how self-consciously his gangly arms hang.

Ginnny, however, is narrowing her eyes at him. There are many threats there.

He coughs and pulls back. 'You'll be visiting, yeah?

'It looks like your sister really wouldn't want me to.'

Ron laughs, because Rose might not know better, but it's still a ridiculously hilarious statement. 'Nah, she'll like you.'

Rose looks unconvinced but doesn't bother arguing.

 

They trade 'see-you-soon's rather than goodbyes. When all's said and done, one does not simply say goodbye to a true friend, even less so when friendships are supposed to be glorious and enduring.

(Ron tacked that last part on September 8th, a week after meeting Rose in the Hogwarts Express. He's had no reason to change his mind since.)

'Don't cry,' Ron warns when her eyes get bright. His voice is admittedly squeaky.

'Shut _up_ , you utter prat.'

 

That's fair.

 

 

 


End file.
